good for the heart and soul

I have a secret. If you ever, truly need to rejuvenate your mind and spirit don't waste your money at a spa. Collect five wonderful girlfriends, pack a suitcase full of un-mom clothes that make you feel hip and head to a swanky, trendy hotel for three days of kid-free, schedule-free bliss.

This past weekend, the ladies I still refer to as my "new mom friends" and I did just that. These ladies I befriended at the new moms support group at the hospital when Dylan was born. We all bonded over becoming first time moms at the same time. Weeks of talking about breastfeeding, colic, and whether or not to return to work brought us close, and led to bonding over playdates, dinner parties and watching our kids grows into toddlers, preschoolers and school agers. We all communicate online every single day and I honestly don't think I would have survived the catapult into mommyhood without the support, humor and camaraderie of this incredibly smart, talented and vivacious group of like-minded moms.

We do an annual girls weekend and we've rented houses and hotel room, locally, to celebrate ourselves and our friendship. Two of my friends in this group have moved from here to Atlanta, so we decided to bring the party down south this year.


We arrived last Friday the 6th which also happened to be my 38th birthday. Checked into the W Hotel in Buckhead and let the good times roll for two nights and three days.

We all had makeovers at the MAC counter Saturday before heading out on the town.

This is more make up than I've worn in the last 15 years combined. It was fun to be glamorous for an evening and learn some tips. My usual routine is some Chapstick and a little mascara, so this was quite an upgrade.

one last time

Last week, Mom and I took the kids to one of our favorite farms for one last spin thru the fall festival before it closed down until next year. We'll see you next September Cox Farms!

Moms Gone Wild 2009

Tomorrow morning, I'll be flying to HOTlanta with three other hip mommy girlfriends. We'll be meeting up with two other hip mommy girlfriends who live there and getting our Relax on at a posh, swanky hotel, while eating bon-bons poolside for our Third Annual Moms Gone Wild weekend getaway. We have a lot of fun things planned and lots of blissful kid-free time for things like girl talk, room cocktails, chick flicks, shopping and reading smut magazines. But here are some things I will NOT be doing while I'm there:

• wiping any little butts
• breaking up fights over the Wii
• picking up any toys
• ordering off the kids menu
• cooking
• laundry
• listening to any whining
• fastening anyone into car seats
• wiping up spilled chocolate milk
• shuttling anyone to soccer
• playing Matchbox cars and monster trucks

Its not that I don't love my life and my job as Domestic Vice President and CFO of Household Affairs. Really, I do. And I will miss the boys (all three of them) and be chomping at the bit Sunday evening to get home and squeeze them tight. But sometimes mommies just need a break to be a girlfriend for a couple of days.

Muhhahahahahaha!

This summer, Dylan had his sights set on being Indiana Jones and never changed his mind once - no doubt this was inspired by playing hours of Wii Lego Indiana Jones. He loved his fake scruffy beard too. Logan had a few costume ideas of his own, and was heavily persuaded to go with something we already had in the dress-up bin. He wore his astronaut costume proudly (although the hat part was a no-go) and now that I think about it, the costume was appropriate since his massive amounts of candy loot will surely send him blasting off to outerspace.

We had a fantastic Halloween night, the best ever, according to Dylan. My neighbor Paige and I took the kids around the neighborhood and Logan was a total professional.

He and Dylan gleefully ran from house to house exclaiming "Happy Halloween!" at the top of their lungs, Logan holding his handmade loot bag by his teeth, deciding that candy is better than presents and therefore Halloween trumps Christmas (I think they'll change their tune on Christmas morning). We had a dramatic moment when Dylan realized he had dropped his whip somewhere along the path but we backtracked and found it, saving the evening.

A few houses along our way went all out, with extensive haunted garages and ghoulish graveyards. I'd love to do this one year. We have a strobe light and a few props we put out every year and it adds so much fun to the night. Monk Andrew bought some dry ice and created a spooky cauldron effect setting up on our front porch to hand out candy, drink his magic potions, and scare the heck out of unsuspecting trick-or-treaters with a giant inflatable spider rigged to a fishing pole, suspended and hidden to pounce upon them as they reached for the candy bowl.

I guess all the excitement gave Dylan a little Halloween gas, because as I'm trying to capture Andrew and his gruesome drink, Dylan accidentally slipped one out while on our neighbor John's lap. Turn up your volume. Classic!

Another neighborhood family hosts an annual pre-trick-or-treat pizza/beer and juice box bash, and this year, with Halloween falling on Saturday, we ventured back over for some post evening bonfire and movie madness. This morning, Logan demonstrated the tongue staining power of high fructose corn syrup.

a spooktacular preschool party

Logan's preschool Halloween party was a few days ago, and I'm totally slacking on the photo download. Its been a busy, busy week here and with trick-or-treat just hours away, its not slowing down anytime soon.

But alas....here are the oh-so-cute photos from Logan's parade and party. We made Spooky Stew, decorated Halloween cookies, played games and did freeze dance to the Monster Mash. It was a ghouly, groovy time.

Croom Fall Fest 2009

We always know its fall when the annual Croom Fall Fest rolls around. The party takes place at the Harrison family farm, and believe you me, we've had many a party there throughout the years; fall and all other times of the year. Yes, that farm has seen some times.

I honestly can't even remember when the annual fall party tradition began....long before I was a wife and a mom. Back when you could roll up to a party with nothing more than a 12 pack and a sweatshirt. Back before you could take pictures throughout the party on your Blackberry and post them to Facebook in real time. Back before we cared about having a huge spread of food...when a bag of Funyuns was more than enough. And though the party has transformed from a drunken kegfest to a family friendly cookout with a smidge of beer on the side and maybe some hot apple cider with or without rum, we still enjoy it and look forward to seeing some of my oldest and dearest friends every fall. In fact, three fourths of my wedding party was there yesterday now that I think about it!

the right cut

You know that old saying "a job is only hard if you have the wrong tools?" Me neither. But it could be an old saying because its true when it comes to pumpkin carving. This time of year, you can usually find our house by the sound of grunting and groaning and swearing and sweating while scraping the guts of pumpkins all over the kitchen table. I believe in years past, Andrew has even been known to break out the power tools to get the job done.

Then a few weeks ago, we happened upon this little gem at the Williams Sonoma outlet.

A bonafide professional pumpkin carving kit. You know how you buy those plastic ones every year, and every year they snap right in half? Yea, well.... these babies are stainless steel. Hoo haw!

Today we took them for a spin while carving our jack-o-lanterns and man-oh-man, it was actually a joy to carve those suckers. Sharp, sturdy and not a chance of breaking in mid-carve.

Photos of said jack-o-lanterns coming soon. I'm still learning how to use my new digital camera.

kingpins

We have a couple of bowling fools in our house. And with all this rain lately, the local bowling alley has seen its fair share of us. Nothing says quality family time like a pitcher of Oktoberfest, cheese pizza, listening to 'Rock the Casbah' while trying to pick up a spare. Awesome.

lists and hiccups

It was a long, rainy weekend and although we did a whole lot of nothing, we actually got quite a few things crossed off the list.

• Hung new blinds in all upstairs windows - check
• Purchased new digital camera - check
• Carpets shampooed throughout house - check
• Eating our way through giant pile of FedEx'ed homemade cookies compliments of Grandma Celia - check
• Watched (again) Monsters vs. Aliens and heard 3 year old repeat over and over "I'm a brave, brave President!" - check

However, in the midst of it all, we had two little hiccups from which we're still recovering. Logan came down with Croup. And my laptop totally and utterly crashed.

Logan is on day 3 of steroids and it seems to have settled into a run-of-the-mill cold/cough. And with nice weather here again for the remainder of the week, hopefully we can get outside and get a good dose of natural Vitamin D.

Andrew completely disassembled my laptop last night and without going into a long, boring tirade full of angry, violent words about Microsoft Vista, let's just say he was able to miraculously save the day ONCE AGAIN with his sheer genius and computer know-how. I, on the other hand, would have probably dropped the computer off the roof just for the satisfaction of hearing it shatter all over the driveway. So although I'm back up and running, I'm a little lost without some of my files and saved interweb bookmarks. I'll live.

freezing our pumpkins off

Yesterday, Mom and I braved the atypical October 40 degree weather and accompanied Logan's preschool on his very first field trip. It was not choice weather for a field trip; we all wore a good four layers or so. But, at least we were dry. Shortly after we left, the downpour arrived and its not going to stop raining for the next four days. Soggy pumpkins indeed. And not very good picture taking weather. My hands were too frozen to remove from my pockets very often.

Oh well, it was nice to spend time with his class, and especially nice for Super Grandma to join us! Afterwards, we were off to the warmth of Red Robin and a big, fat cheeseburger.

Logan's preschool experience so far has been excellent. His teachers are so nice, creative and sweet, he just adores them and loves going to school. And his class is very small, with 8 total kids. He is going to a church based preschool, which is a new experience for us. I'm really happy with it, and feel fortunate he got one of their much sought after spots. He's so proud of the projects he brings home from school, and he will get to perform in a little "Praise and Celebration" ceremony next week in the santuary. I'm sure it will be totally adorable.

NO-gurt

From time to time, I see a product on TV and I think to myself, why? Why on Planet Earth would anyone in their right mind buy that ridiculous idiotic thing? Why, why, why? Why would someone spend the time and energy INVENTING such a ludicrous product? Most of the time, these thoughts come after viewing infomercials for such ridiculous adult products such as Tony Little's Gazelle Freestyle (well, honestly I don't know much about the product but I just can't get past the terrible ponytail) or the infamous Flowbee (it certainly does suck). And who could forget Spray on Hair (c'mon, who are you fooling and P.S. what will you do when the downpour starts?).

But sometimes, the pure idiocy comes in the form of kid products.

And I was just reminded of this after seeing a commerical for Danimals Crush Cups kids yogurt. What genius thought this up? Certainly someone who doesn't have children of their own. Is it so difficult to just use a spoon to eat your yogurt? Does crushing the plastic cup do something special to the flavor of the yogurt? Because giving your kid old an open tub of yogurt and a spoon isn't messy enough. Lets make him have to violently squeeze the yogurt over the top of the widely open container to get it into his mouth. And what about all the yogurt that is sure to be stuck to the inside? No amount of tongue action is going to get all that out of there, lets be honest. This product ranks right up there with such kids winners as candy cigarettes and lawn darts. Its just insanity, in the disguise of a high fructose corn syrup dairy snack.

Of course, my 6 year and 3 year old boys saw this and immediately tuned into the fact that its yogurt for barbarians, and insist we have to go buy some immediately.

Um, no.

We'll stick to eating our yogurt with a spoon, the good old fashioned civilized way. Or at least squeezing it out of a nice, skinny Gogurt plastic tube. Hey, I have an idea. How about kids yogurt with some added fiber? They have this for adults, I know, but lets package it up in a kid appealing container, throw some Disney characters on there so they'll eat it, and I bet Moms would buy it right up. Speaking as a Mom who feeds two messy boys three meals a day seven days a week, if I can find healthy foods that my kids like AND won't make a giant mess for me to clean up, I'm an instant fan.

You won't be finding any Crush Cups in my fridge in this century. But at the rate my boys' hair grows and the cost of haircuts these days, we just might have to give the ole' Flowbee a try.

first grade field trip

I accompanied Dylan's first grade class on their trip to a local flower farm today. It was a great day, despite the wind, and despite carrying around the (somewhat heavy) belongings of several other children I was chaperoning. Its always nice to spend some time with your child's teacher, his classmates and some of the other moms. Dylan snuggled next to me on the school bus on the way home, and told me how much he loved that I came, and I wondered at what age does it become not cool for your mom to join the field trip?

I hope I still have a while.






Logan and I will be going to another pumpkin farm next week with his class. Sure hope the weather is as great as it was today for Dylan's trip!

apples of my eye

I just got done enjoying quite possibly the most delectable dessert I've ever made, and the best part, I made it with the apples we picked ourselves today. We woke up today to absolutely perfect fall weather, grabbed our neighbors Paige and John, and headed west to a fantastic local apple orchard. There were beautiful apples everywhere you looked and we picked our share, and afterwards enjoyed a lovely picnic among the apple trees. I decided to try to make Apple Bread Pudding with Warm Vanilla Sauce tonight because I was just feeling, well, a little adventurous I suppose. Plus, how else are we going to use all of these gorgeous apples? Scrumptious dessert, I totally recommend it. And a great way to spend the day with two little apple eating monkeys who like to run wild and frolic in the outdoors.

out of the dark ages

I am a total idiot when it comes to gadgets. I once almost electrocuted myself by sticking a knife into a toaster that was plugged in. I have no understanding of most technical things, and I don't even own an iPod for crying out loud.

So it would make sense that I have had the same exact cell phone for four years. Your basic old model allowing me to simply make calls and retrieve voicemails. I'm not a big phone talking person to begin with. Seriously, I probably average 150 minutes a month. I rarely text because it takes me too damn long and by the time I figure out where all the letters are I could have just called the person. Plus some of the lingo just seems, well, a little high school I guess. And as someone who recently attended a crowded high school football game, I can honestly attest that 98% of the kids there were not watching the game but were looking down at their phones sending text messages to each other. I wonder, if current high school kids text each other at school all day, what will technology be like by the time my boys are in high school? Will they be able to teleport themselves to class? Is teleport even a word, or is that another example of my ignorance of technology?

The point is, since I left the corporate world to stay home with the kids, I just never thought I needed anything fancier than your average phone.

However, over the summer we did quite a bit of traveling and we were on the go more than ever. And since we are always lugging a gajillion tons of kid crap everywhere we go, bringing my laptop just to have the luxury of checking my email while we were away seemed like a hassle. But then we'd come home, and I'd have hundreds of emails to pour through. Between Facebook, MOMS Club stuff, Freecycle, social emails and emails for my part time marketing job, we're talking a plethora of emails. And here we are now in our new normal life - two kids in school, various sports, gym classes and other activities, plus working part time and just trying to manage a pretty darn hectic social life and I'm here to say it ain't going to slow down. Probably ever.

So I finally decided it was time.

We visited the Verizon store a few nights ago and after what was probably a very painful 90 minutes for our salesman, I walked out with a Blackberry. A very cute, shiny, pink one. I have no idea how to use 95% of the features yet (can someone just help a sister figure out how to change my friggin ringtone??). I can check my email, reply to an email, and make a phone call. I think I know how to check my voicemail. But that's it. I'm going back to the store tomorrow for a personal tutorial on how to use my new gadget because I can already tell, this thing is going to be the cat's meow. No longer will I have to come home to a list of 117 emails to sort through. We're constantly on the go and I'm always somewhere waiting. No more! I can actually get stuff done while I'm on the go. Anyone will tell you, I'm big on email. As I was sitting somewhere today with idle time, returning emails and able to access the weather forecast I thought WHAT TOOK ME SO LONG? Andrew says I'm a late adaptor. And I guess its true, I do like my comfort zone. But this whole technology thing is pretty cool.

Look out, because I just might have to get an iPod next!

Country Fair

Dylan's elementary school hosted its annual oh-so-cute Country Fall Fair yesterday. The rain clouds finally parted and made way for sunnier skies and a great turnout. Grandpa Joe arrived from Florida and joined us for games, food and pony rides all afternoon. Yee-haw!

i heart yard sales

So I'm a little late with this photo, but better late than never right? This past July, Grandpa Joe and Grandma Bobbie paid us a visit and we had a little cookout action. Uncle Chris, Aunt Jessica and Josh and Maya came over for some grub (if I recall, I believe Andrew smoked some meat that day) backyard play and cold beers (okay, juice boxes for the kids). Anyway, we mananged to wrangle all the kids together and snap this photo of us all, which rarely happens. Bella even snuck into the photo and I got to hold my favorite (and only!) niece.

We're expecting Grandpa Joe again this afternoon for the next few days, and we'll be heading to Dylan's school Fall Fair this afternoon (my awesome spouse is there pre-making cotton candy and inhaling spun sugar right now). The fair was postponed from yesterday's torrential downpour and it appears the sun might be starting to peek out.

However, many good things came from yesterday despite the monsoon. We harvested our second garden cantalope this morning, along with some awesome looking Heirloom tomatoes and beans.

Shopping our huge community yard sale yielded me a awesome new kitchen table and chairs (straight from Arhaus, it looks like it was hardly used, and its totally so comfortable and I got the whole set for a steal can you tell I'm excited?!), Andrew scored a Big Green Egg (BGE) - the Cadillac of ceramic smoker grills (retail price new $750, we got it for $75!), the boys got a (loud and obnoxious) table top air hockey/pinball game, and we also found a great, huge over the fireplace mirror for $5. Love it! Oh, and Andrew and I actually watched a movie last night for the first time in months. Not bad for a rainy Saturday.

three weeks in....

Today is the last day of the third week of the school year, and I'm thrilled to report that so far, so good. Although our days are starting much earlier than they used to, we all seem to have adjusted well and no one has missed the bus yet! My boys contintually make me proud at how well they adjust to change and welcome new experiences with complete open arms.

Last night, I attended Dylan's back to school night and had a chance to meet the entire First Grade Team. The teachers presented the curriculum for the year, and explained how homework will operate. Up until now its been one math work sheet a night but the full load begins next week with math, spelling and reading every weeknight (except Fridays). The first graders were all individually tested and have been grouped together with other first graders at their same language level. Starting next week, Dylan will spend two hours a day with his Language Arts teachers, focusing on reading, writing and spelling peers at his same ability level. I remember first grade being the time I learned to read, and I've carried a passion for reading my whole life. I hope this for both of our kids!

We're constantly impressed with Dylan's school, both the entire faculty and the programs, and feel so fortunate we have such great schools in our community. His school Fall Fair is this weekend and Andrew and I will both be volunteering in between letting the kids play games, sink Dylan's teacher in the dunk tank, and eating some great food. Next month, I'll begin volunteering in Dylan's classroom perdiodically too.

Meanwhile, Logan loves preschool and can't wait to hop in the car on preschool mornings. I walk him to his classroom and he greets his teachers, eagerly heading right in, barely stopping to give me a kiss goodbye. He loves to stay busy and I know his time flies when he is there. His teachers are so sweet, and so nurturing. Its a fantastic preschool and the staff is so organized and fun. This week they introduced music class and got to have the first of many birthday cupcakes, I'm sure. I'm one of the two Room Parents for Logan's class, and we're already starting to plan for the oh-so-cute Halloween party.

Its fantastic having this chance to be involved at the boys' schools, meeting other parents and getting to know the teachers. I'm very, very fortunate to have this opportunity.

Dear 3 year old darling son,

Just because you have a cold doesn't make it okay to use me as your human Kleenex all day. Or scream your head off when I won't buy you fruit snacks at Costco. Or hide my flip flop so I'm now left with only one shoe. So lets suck it up a little bit, okay? Because you know your bedroom door? It has a lock on the outside. Don't tempt me.

Love,
Mama

gleek!

Tonight, my new favorite show is on. Have you seen it yet? Its been a long time since I found a new show worthy of latching onto.

First, the description of the show as a comedy/musical might sound like a turn off. I'm not really a musical kinda gal. In fact, I've only seen five of the movie musicals listed on the AFI's Greatest Movie Musical List. I'd make a terrible gay guy.

But this show is awesome. Its for anyone who ever felt like an underdog in high school (and who didn't?). The adult relationships are entertaining, endearing and dark with some very unlikely love triangles. Jane Lynch is hilarious; just as funny as she was in The 40 Year Old Virgin. In last weeks' episode, some of the male faculty members (mostly older and overweight) form a boy band called the "Acafellas" and energetically perform the Bel Biv DeVoe song "Poison". There is also something very John Hughes-esque about it. How can you go wrong?!

Its mindless, funny, and brilliant all at the same time. And, it just got approved for a full season, yay! I guess I'm officially a Gleek.

cleanliness is a virtue

Dylan got off the bus this afternoon carrying an award - a baseball hat with the name of his elementary school, and an envelope containing a $20 gift card to a yummy local Chinese restaurant. "Mom, I won this today because my desk was the shiniest and cleanest in the whole class!".

I can't take credit (or blame) for everything he's learned up to this point, but I think the neat freak in me has totally gotten through to him. And if its going to keep us in good Chinese food, I'll teach him how to wash the teacher's car next!